Every website running WordPress, or just about any other CMS for that matter, should have some security and backup system in place. Whenever I log in to a new client’s WordPress site, these are the very first things that I check.

I am continually surprised by the number of client sites I access that have no security or backup system in place.

If you’re building your first website, or having it built for you, what should be making sure is in place?

One of the most confusing topics for website owners can be who to host their website with. There are so many companies available, offering a wide range of services at different price points. How do you know which service is most appropriate for your website?

The new GDPR law comes into effect on May 25th and website owners around the world have been scrambling to make their sites compliant by the deadline. Many website owners I’ve spoken to are bemused by the new legislation, but there are a few steps you can take immediately to get your website on the path towards compliance.

The specific compliance requirements for each site vary depending on the data being processed but a privacy policy is often one of the first hurdles for site owners who wish to be compliant but don’t necessarily know where to start. Enter Legalo, a UK–based team of internet lawyers that have created a wealth of legal document templates aimed at helping small businesses across a wide range of areas.

A couple of weeks ago, I came across a Facebook advert that was offering access to a range of premium WordPress themes and plugins for $10-$20 per month. Out of curiosity I followed the link and had a browse around the website. The site features an extensive database of well-known premium themes/plugins that were all included as part of the subscription packages on offer.

When you bear in mind that a premium WordPress theme license can be around $70 per website, and premium plugins are anything between $10-$100 each, what's being offered on this site sounds like a rather good deal. This is especially true for users who are building their own websites and can't pass the costs on to clients. So, is it too good to be true? Unsurprisingly, the answer is almost definitely ‘yes’.

As a musician living and working in the 21st century, at some point you‘re going to have to use social media to promote your music, a gig, your band, or all of these in some combination. Universities and music colleges are slowly catching up in their provision of education in these areas, but in some cases the advice on offer barely stretches to ‘use social media to promote your music’. Not helpful.

There’s lots of social media advice freely available on the web, but this can be quite vague at times and is often aimed at businesses, so it may not feel entirely relevant. So, where do you start? Here's a brief, non-exhaustive, musician’s guide to Twitter and specific tips on how to use it to promote your music in an effective way.

What is your budget? During the initial discussions around a new project, this is often one of the first questions that a client will be asked. This can seem to be somewhat of an invasive question a first glance, but there are perfectly good reasons to be clear about this upfront.

Now that you‘ve completed (or at least started) the process of researching your new website, the next thing to prepare is the site‘s content. This is a really important step that's often overlooked.

As a web designer, I‘m quite often asked if I can design the site and then ‘slot the content in’ afterwards. The answer is, unfortunately, no. Think about your site's users - they’re visiting your site for the content, not the design(!), so this is an absolutely crucial aspect of your site to spend some time on and get right. Trying to build a site without the content can lead to some major flaws as the designer has to make quite a lot of assumptions about what will be available content-wise.

Fortunately, seeing as you’ve just completed the research process, you should now be in a pretty good position to create the initial content for your site. You may even be feeling particularly inspired by some of the content you've seen on your internet travels. So, where to begin?